AP Psychology – Operational Definitions Practice
In this assignment, your task is to try to come up with operational definition for emotions, behaviors and
states of being. For each of the following statement, please provide an operational definition for the
underlined words. While you are doing this keep in mind that an operational definition is one that
makes it clear how the researcher should go about measuring the process, activity, or thing.
1. A researcher wants to study how eating a potato will affect a person’s sense of humor.
2. A psychiatrist wants to determine how effective a new therapy is on treating depression.
3. Does caffeine help people overcome feelings of tiredness?
4. Infants show more affection towards their mothers than their fathers.
5.
School spirit is at an all time high.
6. People who make over $100,000 a year are snobbish.
7. College football players are not as intelligent as college lacrosse players.
8. Queen is the best rock group ever.
9. A student wants to figure out how to study more efficiently.
10. Overall, women are better athletes than men.
11. A researcher wants to determine how likely children are to comply with an authority figure.
12. People who are risk takers have higher incidences of criminal behavior.
13. People who work with the elderly walk slower than those who work with younger people.
14. Dogs that eat Kibble are more aggressive than those who eat Kobble.